Ashes
by kumikokat
Summary: A few years after the events of Breaking Dawn the Cullens move to Alaska, however at school Edward and Bella discover a girl who is undergoing the change to vampire. With a newborn in the family life is going to change. But who changed her? And why?
1. I

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**Author's note: The story you are about to read takes place a few years after Breaking Dawn. The Cullens have moved to Alaska. A hyphen signifies a paragraph break. It is written completely in Bella's POV unless stated otherwise.**

**Please read and review, I love to get feedback ****.**

Chapter I

The car climbed steadily up a steep incline which seemed, to me at least, to be almost vertical. I was lounging across the back seat, flipping through a battered copy of _Romeo and Juliet_, while Edward drove and Nessie sat in the front passenger seat, bouncing excitedly and singing badly to a song on the radio.

"We're here Bells."

I sat up quickly, glancing out of the windscreen. The house, which sat nestled among tall trees, behind a lazy river, was huge. Edward manoeuvred the wide Mercedes across the wooden bridge and came to a stop on the wide gravel driveway. Alice and Esme were running between the hired moving van and the house carrying boxes and bags full of all our stuff. Nessie flew out of the car, across the drive and up the steps of the house. She was through the front door before I could tell her to take off her snow-covered shoes.

"What do you think?"

It took me a second to realise Edward was talking to me.

"It's beautiful," I breathed, my sharp eyes talking in the brickwork, the delicate, latticed bay windows, the Romanesque columns, the sloping roof. I opened the car door and felt the frost-covered gravel tickling the soles of my bare feet. I hastened up the steps to the house and found myself in a large, airy room floored with ancient oak. A lot of the furniture was already set up: the French living room set, the grand piano, the wide LED TV. Jasper and Emmett were lying on the floor in front of a small cupboard built into the wall just underneath where the TV was mounted.

"Hey," I say, approaching them silently, "what are you doing?"

Jasper rolled over so that he is on his back, looking at me, and waved a Nintendo Wii instruction booklet.

"I learned to speak fluent Anglo-Saxon in one summer but the Nintendo Wii instruction book continues to baffle me."

Emmett sat up, clutching his prized black PS3 to his chest and sighing.

"Jasper, why don't you go and get on with your knitting or something? I would get this finished faster if you weren't here."

"Thanks."

I laughed quietly as I walked away. Those two reminded me of an old married couple sometimes. I climb the stairs and wander unhurriedly along the wide, looping corridor. I see Nessie sitting on a Super-king-size bed in one of the bedrooms, grinning widely. The room is painted a delicate purple and the boxes containing all of her stuff are already sitting on the floor, but she's too delighted with her new bedroom to touch them yet.

I advance along the corridor. The sound of Rosalie's singing drifts from a closed Oak door. I see Carlisle unpacking his office supplies into an antique filing cabinet through an open door. The door at the end of the corridor contained one of my two favourite people in the world.

Our room was big and beautiful. The bed – an antique French four-poster – sat on a raised platform. Edward was unpacking our clothes into the large walk in wardrobe. I noticed a few outfits I didn't recognise.

"Alice…" I cursed under my breath.

Edward chuckled good-naturedly.

"Don't tear her throat out yet, I kind of like some of these." He holds up a girly white summer dress with gold butterflies, a neon-pink pinafore dress under a plain white t-shirt, and a long grey dancer's sweater, the kind that is usually worn atop some kind of leotard.

"Huh…" The pieces weren't the sort of thing I usually wore but I kind of liked the pink dress.

I picked up a box effortlessly and carried it to the delicate dressing table, setting out my silver-backed hairbrush set, my jewellery box, the long-fingered silver hand that held my rings. I tidied my straighteners and hairdryer into one of the drawers, leaving the other drawer free for Edward's stuff. I found my toiletry bag at the bottom of the box and threw it into the en-suite.

"School Tomorrow."

"Ugh. Don't remind me. I don't even want to contemplate repeating biology."

"Take something else," Edward suggested, folding one of his shirts crisply and smoothing it flat in a drawer, "physics? Chemistry? Extra PE?"

"Huh. Well I guess I am far more co-ordinated now."

He laughed. Before we could continue our light hearted conversation, Alice swept into the room, not bothering to knock.

"Bella! We need to get you ready for school. It's already so late."

I let out a long, exaggerated sigh. The truth was I didn't so much mind Alice playing dress-up with me now. I looked good in everything, and I was starting to like the flamboyance.

"Fine. Let me check Nessie is in bed, though, first."

Alice stepped aside obligingly and I waltzed into the corridor. I already loved the house. I always kind of felt like the newcomer in the Forks house, however much I loved it – this place was partly mine. Alice skipped along after me as I flashed along to Nessie's room. She was already dozing off, but she was lying on top of the blankets fully clothed. Carefully, I removed her shoes and tucked her under the blankets, not changing her into her pyjamas for fear of waking her. I set her alarm clock for seven am, rifled through the boxes for a school outfit and left the garments, neatly folded, on top of her dresser.

"Ok," I whispered to Alice, retreating into the corridor and shutting Nessie's door quietly behind me, "make me pretty."


	2. II

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.**

**Author's note: The story you are about to read takes place a few years after Breaking Dawn. The Cullens have moved to Alaska. A hyphen signifies a paragraph break. It is written completely in Bella's POV unless stated otherwise.**

**Please read and review, I love to get feedback ****.**

Chapter II

Four hours later, at three am, Alice had finally picked an outfit for me after making me try on about a thousand. I was wearing a pair of floral patterned footless tights under a very long but fitted denim shirt. It already clung to me but Alice had still wound a wide brown leather belt around it to "_accentuate my fabulous waist_" – her words, not mine. She had loaned me a pair of her brown leather ankle boots too, which had enormous heels. If I were still human I wouldn't have been able to walk in them, but my vampire self had no problem with them. I had slipped a ring with a huge emerald flower onto my finger to hide my wedding ring, which I couldn't bear to take off. Alice had also supplied me with an old leather messenger bag of hers, all my school stuff already packed into it conveniently. Now we were going to work on my hair and makeup.

"Well if we're going with cowgirl chic," Alice mused, more to herself than me, "why not go all out?" Her fingers flew around my hair, fixing the tangled mess of brown that was my hair into two long, thick plaits and securing the fly away strands with a wide brown hair band decorated with a wide bow.

Alice's wide selection of makeup turned my lips a brilliant red, my eyelashes long and spidery, my eyelids a dark, smoky purple. I smiled at myself, surprised, once again, at Alice's handiwork.

"There. _Parfait_."

"Thanks Alice."

It was nearly 7 am. I stood up, slung the messenger bag across my shoulders, and went to wake Nessie. I could smell pancakes from the kitchen; someone must be making Nessie breakfast. I glided into my daughter's bedroom and woke her gently. I left her to dress. She looked about seven now, but in reality was much younger, but mentally was much older. Esme would be taking her to school that morning. It was more plausible. Anyway, no one would even consider the possibility that I could be Nessie's mother.

I was downstairs in a matter of moments. Carlisle was flipping pancakes in one of Esme's good pans. He looked up, saw me, and grinned.

"I'm new to this. Am I doing ok?" He asked teasingly. I wandered up behind him and glanced over his shoulder. The pancakes looked delicious, and perfect.

"Why is every vampire but me good at _everything_?" I whined, stamping my foot like a child. Carlisle chuckled.

"Mind getting me some butter and a knife?"

"Sure." I grabbed a knife from the drawer, pulled the butter out of the fridge, and laid them down on the counter island.

"I'd better make sure Edward is presentable," I joked, heading towards the stairs.

Upstairs, Edward was dressed in a pair of old jeans and a white t-shirt under a grey jumper. A pair of aviator sunglasses rest on the dressing table next to him. He is sitting there with a book, upon closer inspection I realise it is _Romeo and Juliet_.

"Morning."

"Good morrow, my dear Isabella."

I let out another exaggerated sigh.

"Are you ready to go?"

"Almost," he said, standing up and sliding a pair of smart, black leather gloves on to hide his own wedding band. "Ok."

I nodded, smiling. We went out the front door, our feet crunching on the gravel drive. Edward held the door to his Volvo open for me and I slid onto the front passenger seat. Esme would take Nessie to school when the time came, but Edward and I intended to be early for our first day of school. Rosalie and Emmett were climbing into the huge four-by-four and as Edward pulled away and across the bridge I saw Alice and Jasper coming out of the elegant front door of the new house.

"Ugh…" I groaned, leaning back against the seat.

"What? Aren't you excited?"

I thought Edward was being serious until I looked over and saw the wicked grin on his face.

I pursed my lips and stared hard out of the windscreen.

We arrived at the school in a little under five minutes. The school was tiny, seriously very small, and the car park was ridiculously crowded. Edward found a space and parked. I climbed out of the car and stared across the swarming crowd of students towards the lone school building, which was about four storeys tall and made of ugly, prefabricated sections. Edward held my messenger bag out to me, which I had stupidly left in the car. Being a vampire doesn't change some thing, I suppose.

"Ready?"

"No."

He threw his arm around my shoulder and led me towards the school, an action which reminded me of a paramedic leading a traumatised car crash victim towards an ambulance. No matter how clumsy I thought I looked, the majority of the student population turned to stare at us. Edward's eyes crinkled beneath his aviator sunglasses.

"Excuse me," Edward spoke to a girl about our age, well, the age that we were pretending to be anyway, "can you point us towards the office?"

She simply stared at him, and for the first time I noticed that she was quite pretty, by human standards. She had short cropped brown hair and blue eyes, and kind of reminded me of Alice; not really in looks but in manner. She seemed like she would be a happy-go-lucky kind of person normally, but now there was so little movement in her face that she looked comatose. I couldn't blame her. She was mesmerised by Edward.

"Go into the school and turn left. It's the first door." A tall, pretty blonde answered for her, gesturing wildly with her long arms as she spoke. If she weren't draped in a long jumper and furry boots for the cold, I was sure she would be dressed in a cheerleading uniform.

"Thanks," I muttered, pulling Edward away towards the school, and while we waked I said angrily, "she had some nerve. We're clearly together."

Edward chuckled.

"Are you _jealous_?"

"No." But I said it too quickly.

"Because you know, you're much prettier than her now. You were much prettier than her when you were human, too." He whirled me around so I was looking at my reflection in one of the school's large windows. I smiled at myself and fluttered my eyelashes, something I could pull off now.

"Sorry. Had a human moment there."

We entered the school through the automatic doors into a shabby foyer, with three sets of stairs leading off in different directions. A sign directly above us said _Office _and an arrow pointed to the left.

But before we could move, the screaming started.

We shared a look, and then ran, full, awesome, vampire speed ahead, towards the source. The hideous noise was echoing from the girls' bathroom. I ploughed through the door.

A girl lay on the floor, writhing in agony, her big green eyes wide with terror.

"Edward!" Where was he? Had been right behind me a minute ago.

"So I'm allowed to come in, then?" He peeked round the bathroom door. I shot him a withering look, and gestured frantically to the girl on the floor. His expression changed from one of glee to pure shock.

"She's been bitten."

It was my turn to look shocked. I turned my gaze back to the girl and saw the large, red shape of a vampire bite on her neck. Why hadn't I noticed it before?

"Can't you suck the venom out?" I asked desperately.

"No. She's a stranger," Edward looked pained, "I haven't hunted in days. I wouldn't be able to stop. We'll take her to Carlisle."

I nodded, swept the girl up in my arms and we ran back to the house in a matter of moments.


End file.
